Jonna Engström-Öst, Novia

Mission Scientist, Novia University of Applied Sciences, Finland

Bio: I am a Senior Scientist at the Research and Development Institute Aronia, a joint venture between Novia University of Applied Sciences and Åbo Akademi University. Aronia is aimed at linking basic institutional academic research with practical knowledge; we emphasize applied research and offer tools for natural resource management, especially in coastal regions and the Archipelago Sea. Aronia has multiple research facilities; I am based at Campus Raseborg in the south. I lead an Academy of Finland project looking at climate change effects on zooplankton; I’m particularly interested in how ocean acidification and a warming climate are affecting zooplankton ecology and physiology. I synthesize data from my field and laboratory studies with long-term monitoring data to see how multiple stressors affect oxidative status, respiration and reproductive success of zooplankton. Here are some recent papers I published with my colleagues about the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on plankton communities and copepod physiology and reproduction.

Jonna Engström-Öst (front right) and her Ocean Acidification colleagues (including Olivier Glippa; back right), doing fieldwork in Bergen, Norway. Click on this picture to read the research expedition blog.

I did my Ph.D. thesis at the University of Helsinki and Finnish Institute of Marine Research on cyanobacteria, zooplankton and planktivore interactions. As part of my post-doctoral work looking at the effect of eutrophication on the behavioural ecology of Northern pike (Esox lucius), I stayed in the beautiful city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Later I was funded by the Academy of Finland as Academy Research Fellow, studying cyanobacteria-copepod interactions during climate change.

What I’m doing on this research cruise: With my colleagues Olivier Glippa and Anna McLaskey, we will examine how ocean acidification is affecting zooplankton oxidative stress and fatty acids, gene expression, and reproduction (egg production).

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Cruise Photo Gallery

The California Current from space. On February 8, 2016, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured several images of blooming phytoplankton and swirling currents along the coast of California and western Mexico. Image from NASA Earth Observatory (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=87575&src=eoa-iotd).